By definition, the realization that you’ve experienced a close brush with death can’t come until after you’ve survived, but sometimes you might realize you’re already standing on thin ice, left to wonder how you’re going to stay alive.

We hope these moments in life are few, if at all, but when they do occur, reliving them with the safety and clarity of hindsight can teach us lessons about ourselves that we may otherwise never know.  

In his piece “Melting Away — Ice Fishing on LSD While Your World Dissolves,” a story published as part of Good Beer Hunting’s Olly Olly series in collaboration with Oskar Blues, writer and photographer Mark LaFaro describes his venture onto a frozen lake in Minnesota and what brought him there in the first place—the end of a partnership for him and the dawning of a new era for his friend Finney, who recently became a new parent. Beginnings and ends like these can feel similarly rudderless and isolating, something Mark and Finney found out during what ended up being a more treacherous outing than they originally anticipated. In this conversation with Mark, he told me he’d do it all again, maybe with a bit less LSD and definitely with some more safety precautions. He also talks about how despite the fact that fishing is closely tied to drinking, how the two alcohol-free friends managed to still open their horizons and hearts to one another during a terrifying, but somewhat necessary catharsis for them both. The two friends danced on the edge of life and came back to tell the tale, and we’re fortunate to hear all about it.